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Baring it all

In MSUM’s latest performance, six men bare all in order to achieve their goals. The “full monty” means to do everything necessary, and in this case, that involves stripping all the way.

After the factory he works at shuts down, Jerry (Chris Knutson) decides to get together a group of guys to do a one-night-only strip performance after seeing how much money male strippers receive from women. He needs the money to pay child support or else his son will be taken away from him.

Jerry recruits five other men, including his best friend Dave (Ben Walkup), ex-factory workers Malcom (Jack Bonko) and Ethan (Zachary Lutz), their ex-boss Harold (Joseph Schwartz) and an old black man nicknamed Horse (Noah Roddy), whose race and nickname’s implications are used to attract more women for the performance.

“(These are the) most fun times I’ve had on stage,” Roddy said about working on the show.

The show explores men’s struggles with insecurities normally characterized as something only women struggle with.

In Act Two, they look through a magazine and rate the woman based on how they look. The men think that their female audience won’t judge them, but they soon realize that is exactly what’s going to happen. They begin to feel extremely uncomfortable with their bodies, especially Dave, who is already insecure about his weight.

An interesting aspect of the show is that it doesn’t degrade the profession of stripping. Instead, it’s just a job people have to make money. The play also makes the point that it’s better to be a stripper than work at Walmart as a night security guard.
“The Full Monty” was an overall hilarious yet heartfelt story. It shows a good father-son relationship and how deep their bond can be. It also shows the importance of friendship and how true friends will stand by you no matter what. This show will make you laugh until you cry. The best part of the show was at the end when the six men did in fact go the full monty, but thanks to some special lighting tricks, the audience couldn’t actually see everything.

“I don’t know how they found the balls to get naked,” said MSUM student Haille McLaughlin.

The actors spent a lot of time getting comfortable being naked, but it probably helped that the audience could not see any specific body parts.

This show might inspire some to look at the profession of stripping differently and leave the audience with a life lesson or two. But maybe, just maybe, this show can inspire people to not be afraid to go the full monty.